New approach to cosmic ray investigations above the knee

It is assumed that at energies around the knee the nucleus-nucleus interaction is drastically changed due to production of blobs of quark-gluon matter with very large orbital momentum. This approach allows explain all so-called unusual events observed in cosmic rays and gives a new connection between results of EAS investigations and energy spectrum and mass composition of primary cosmic rays. To check this approach, the experiments in cosmic rays and at LHC are proposed. (paper)